EUGENE -- The lingering question for the Oregon Ducks as they head into the biggest week of the season comes as a relatively unexpected one.

With the season hanging in the balance, can Oregon get past Washington State?

What?

On paper, the Ducks' opening opponent for the Pac-12 tournament seems completely below their skill level. The Ducks went 20-11 this season and their 10-8 mark in Pac-12 play earned them the No. 6 seed for the tournament. No. 11 Washington State went 12-18 and 4-14 to finish ahead of only Cal in the conference standings.

But because this is the Pac-12 in 2018, of course there's more to it. In fact, Washington State is the reason why this week is so important for Oregon. Had the Cougars not upset the Ducks last week in Pullman, this is all different. Oregon would have had a better seed and the Ducks may not have needed to win the entire tournament to reach the NCAA Tournament for a sixth consecutive season.

But the Cougars did upset the Ducks -- and in perfect Pac-12 fashion, lost by 25 to Oregon State two nights later -- setting up a quick turnaround for a rematch on Vegas' opening night.

Any chance the Ducks will be motivated for this one?

"I hope so," Oregon coach Dana Altman said. "Just coming back less than a week later and playing them, that should be motivation for our guys."

But the key to this Pac-12 tournament isn't just having motivation for one game. If Oregon wants to come back to Eugene with its second tournament title in three seasons, it's going to have to do something that hasn't been done since 2012: They're going to have to win four games in four days.

Colorado in 2012 was the last team to win the tournament without receiving a first-round bye. In the five years since, the Pac-12 has been won only by No. 1 or No. 2 seeds.

The challenge for the Ducks, if they get through Washington State, is to find the consistency that has eluded them throughout the year.

"We have some good moments where guys seem to get it and play well and really hard defensively," Altman said. "Then we have some moments where we play like we're freshmen and like a young team that hasn't played much together. You want your team to be at its best or playing toward its best and we haven't done that. I haven't done that."

Oregon's longest conference winning streak this season stood at three games. The Ducks upset Utah, got revenge on Oregon State and expectedly took care of the lowly Cal Bears on the road.

Then inconsistency struck to the tune of a 35-point loss at Stanford.

The Ducks regrouped to win two. Then lost two. Then won two. Then came WSU -- followed by Saturday's season-ending win at Washington.

Even that game had its issues, as the Ducks once again had to weather an offensive collapse in the final minutes to pull out the win. But even as Altman was disappointed in how the Ducks finished that win on the offensive side, he saw some things that he always believes travel well.

"We were struggling offensively and not moving the ball and weren't as sharp as we should have been," he said. "But we went back on the other end and really had some good defensive plays -- took a charge, Kenny (Wooten) got a block, Payton (Pritchard) dug out a loose ball. We had some really good defensive possessions there.

"Defensively we didn't let that bother us. We went back to the other end and got stops."

One train of thought could figure that maybe Oregon's consistency will appear because the season is on the line. But after a Pac-12 season that saw only Arizona standout, just about every team can make an argument for why this could be their week.

After losing to Oregon by 27 points in Eugene in January, few gave WSU a chance of redemption last week. Then the 70-68 upset happened.

And now, everyone is staring at a Pac-12 tournament where it appears that anything could happen.

"Everyone is fighting for a spot in the NCAA Tournament. That is everyone's goal," Pritchard said. "We know it will be a war with a bunch of teams."